Refugee Law (Essentials of Canadian Law)

Refugee Law is a succinct guide to Canadian refugee law, policy, and procedure for law students, legal practitioners, paralegals, and NGO staff. The book describes the formal statutory and regulatory bases of the law as it applies to the protection of individuals who are "Convention refugees" as well as other categories of individuals who are in need of protection due to a potential violation of their human rights abroad. It includes discussion and analysis of the policies, processes, and practices that are used to determine refugee law issues. The organization of the book roughly represents the arc of a refugee claim in Canada or abroad: the application, the assessment, the determination of status, and the consequences of a grant or refusal of refugee protection. Refugee Law examines the core international treaties that influence Canadian law and policy; provides a detailed description of the principles governing refugee protection decision-making; details the procedures to be followed for overseas refugee processing and inland refugee determination; describes the role of counsel during the application process and at refugee hearings, as well as issues of professional responsibility related to that role; outlines the steps that usually follow a negative refugee determination, either before the Immigration and Refugee Board or by an immigration officer in Canada or abroad; offers insight into some of the ongoing debates in Canadian (and international) refugee law; and looks at Canadian refugee law and its relation to refugee law elsewhere in the world. While Canadian refugee law has emerged as an independent branch of law, this book does not present it as operating in isolation. Rather, the book treats refugee law as a system subject to the internal logic and integrity of immigration law, to which it is closely tied.